USA > Indiana > History of the Third Indiana cavalry > Part 2
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serves, and the enemy, although greatly outnumbering our tired and worn-out soldiers, was promptly met by Majors Davies and Chapman and forced back in great confusion far behind the fire of Captain Walter's carbineers. Major Chapman and his whole command promptly obeyed every order, and charged most gal- lanty. Braver and more eager men never met the enemy."
At page 122 of the same volume, Brig .- Gen. John Gibbons fur- nishes Gen. Rufus King with his official account of his trip down the Telegraph road in the direction of Richmond on the 5th of August, 1862, for the purpose of destroying the Virginia Central railroad. He says: "I proceeded out the Telegraph road with the Second and Seventh Wisconsin, the Nineteenth Indiana, the Third Indiana Cavalry and Monroe's (Rhode Island) Battery. At Thornburg, fifteen miles out, the cavalry in advance was fired upon by a six-pounder gun and driven back by a cavalry force, whose advance was stopped by a few shots from our skirmishers and four or five shots from Monroe's guns. The day was so in- tensely hot that I was unable to proceed further. The next day the march was resumed, and after marching seven miles learned that General Stewart, with a larger force than my own, was moving up the Bowling Green road. All prospect of surprising the enemy at the railroad was given up; and, owing to the intense heat, I decided to return to camp, first sending a part of the cavalry to our right to get in on the rear of a party reported to be there by a cavalry picket I had sent on that road in the morning. I also sent a company of cavalry across to examine the Bowling Green road. Just before reaching our camp of the night before the enemy's guns were heard in our rear, and I pushed forward and reported to General Hatch."
In this movement a considerable force of Stewart's cavalry was encountered drawn up in line of battle, and the Third Indiana Cavalry and Monroe's Battery were sent forward to engage them, "but," says Captain Monroe (page 126), "the enemy fell back
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most hurriedly, followed by our cavalry and the battery, and we kept up the chase for two hours and a half, until nightfall, when we went into camp on the Massaponax river." In this engagement Marmaduke Green, of Company D, Third Indiana, was killed, he being the first man killed in action in our regiment.
While performing this duty Captain Carland and Lieutenant Powers, of Company F, and Captain Keister, of Company D, resigned and returned home. Lieutenant Henry F. Wright was made captain of Company D and Lieut. T. W. Moffitt was made captain of Company F.
In July, 1862, while scouting with twenty-five of his men, twelve miles south of Fredricksburg, at the farm of Dr. Flippo, Captain Moffitt was attacked by a superior force of rebel cavalry, also scouting in that section of the country, and with part of his com- mand Captain Moffitt was captured and taken to Richmond. In the fight Sergt. William M. Gwinn was seriously wounded, and, after being paroled by his captors, was left at the home of Dr. Flippo, where he was kindly nursed for several weeks until able to be removed. Being on parole, after he was sent within our lines, he was discharged and sent home, a cripple for life.
In these summer days of 1862 this old Virginia country is recalled with much interest by the writer. Between Fredricks- burg and Richmond, connected by rail, were some of the finest farms and farm homes in the state, and the institution of slavery, which had flourished here from the days when Virginia was a colony and to the time of our advent had been undisturbed; but apparently the moment the section was invaded by federal troops the institution of slavery began to interest itself in the subject of its own freedom, and in a short time many of the old-time planta- tions were denuded of their slaves, who embraced every oppor- tunity to escape to the federal lines and camps north of the Rap- pahannock. Often at midnight old and trusted slaves on these plantations would hitch up the family carriage, loading in all the
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children and connection it was possible to carry, and would strike out towards the unknown in the night time, followed by others on foot carrying their earthly belongings in sacks and pillow slips on their heads, and by daylight would be well on their way to the fabled land of the free. Frequently they would be followed by their old masters or some member of the family, but they were seldom overtaken until safe within our lines and the power of slavery was broken; but some of these interviews between old masters and old slaves, one begging the other to return to the old home, were pathetic indeed. Scarcely any of these slaves had ever known anything but slavery, and perhaps in many instances their treatment had not been harsh, but instinctively they seemed to know from observation that their lives were different from the lives of the masters, that one was property and the other was not, that one ruled and the other obeyed, and they seemed to have a vague idea that the antipode of slavery was to make the slave the equal of his master, and it was seldom the pursuing master was able to induce his escaped chattel to return to the plantation. He was at times fortunate enough to recover the family carriage and horses in some federal camp, and perhaps permitted by the officers in command to drive it back to the old plantation. Bowling Green, the county seat of Caroline county, midway between Fredricks- burg and Richmond, was in the midst of a thriving section of country and was an active part of the Southern Confederacy.
Fredricksburg, located on the south bank of the Rappahannock, in a beautiful valley of that river, was a compactly brick-built, little old city of historic interest. A few miles below the city on the peninsula formed by the Potomac and Rappahannock, George Washington was born on a plantation; in Fredricksburg he had his first office as a land surveyor ; and upon a little hillock overlook- ing the city was buried Martha Washington, the mother of the Father of His Country, her resting place being marked by a granite block ten feet high by eight feet square, which we passed
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daily. The road winding up the hill by this monument passed over Maryes Heights, where, in December following, General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was posted, and fought the Army of the Potomac, under General Burnsides, with such dis- astrous results to the Union cause.
While the battalion had its camp and performed service in this historic section of the country the scene of conflict in Virginia was shifted. After many fierce conflicts from Norfolk up through the swamps of the Chickahominy in an effort to reach Richmond, General McClellan with his magnificent army was compelled to fall back upon his base of supplies at Harrisons Landing, on the James river. This seems to have been foreseen by the authorities at Washington, and in June, 1862, the formation of a new army in front of the defenses of Washington, in Virginia, was begun under the command of General John Pope, who had rendered conspicuous service in the West, and particularly at Island No. 10, on the Mississippi river, and at Corinth. All troops in front of Washington and in the Shenandoah Valley were placed at the dis- posal of General Pope, and in taking command of this new army its commander in a bombastic proclamation announced that he had established his "headquarters in the saddle," which was evidently an unwise thing to announce, even if it was the proper thing to do. The country was flooded with ambitious young army officers, graduates of West Point, all of whom were impressed with their capacity for command, and when General Pope, suddenly pro- moted from a subordinate position to this new and exalted com- mand, went about his work with what might be termed a grand flourish that savored of a feeling of self-sufficiency on his part, his brother officers were disposed to fold their hands, "look and listen."
But soon after he took command there was something doing. General Rufus King's division, to which the eastern battalion was attached, and which lay in camp around Falmouth, was ordered to
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join Pope, and at once moved up the Rappahannock, leaving the cavalry to guard government stores at Falmouth; and in a very few days thereafter was in the thick of the bloody battle of Slaughter Mountain, where, after two days' fighting, the Union troops were compelled to fall back with General Siegel's division bringing up the rear, and General Lee's army heading northward, constantly crowding him. There was daily fighting between the advancing confederates and retreating federals, and the roar of cannon heard in our camps and on the picket post we occupied told us the conflict was moving northward. We were right in our con- jectures. Pope's army was on the retreat, and made its first grand stand on the plains of Manassas, where were fought the series of bloody engagements known in history as the Second Battle of Bull Run. Pope with his own army and supported by a part of the Army of the Potomac, sent too late to help him much, was de- feated, and that general's meteoric career came to an end in less than six weeks. His army and the Army of the Potomac were within and behind the defenses of Washington, including the battalion of the Third Indiana Cavalry, which had been the last body of troops to evacuate Fredricksburg, when General Burn- sides, the last commander there, had been ordered to destroy all government stores at that point and fall back on Washington.
That city when we reached it was one vast hospital over which seemed to hang the gloom of defeat. Between the first of March and September, 1862, two great armies had gone out from that city under petted commanders to meet the enemy in the field, and, after many fierce encounters and the loss of thousands of brave men, these armies with their trailing banners and with broken ranks, were back on the ground where they were equipped, and from whence they had started six months before; while the victorious enemy on the west bank of the Potomac seemed to flaunt defiance at the Capital of his country ere he swooped down and made it his prey. And it looked little better in the West. Shiloh and Corinth,
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Pea Ridge, Fort Donelson and Fort Henry had been fought, but while the armies that had operated in Virginia were within the defenses of Washington, our Western armies that had penetrated Mississippi were back on Kentucky soil to confront Bragg, who was threatening to cross the Ohio river and invade the North. This was the situation on the first day of September, 1862, and it looked to those who loved and had fought for their country that "the melancholy days had come."
But it was an hour that demanded prompt decision on the part of the authorities. The vanguard of the confederate army crossed the Potomac a few miles above Washington and the invasion of the North had begun. Lee's cavalry, under their daring leader, Stewart, approached the northern defenses of the Capital. Stone- wall Jackson swept up through the Shenandoah Valley with Har- pers Ferry and Maryland Heights as his objective, where General Miles, with thirteen thousand men, was entrenched.
The reorganization of the Army of the Potomac was effected without delay, with General McCellan in command, and moved northward through Maryland, with a cavalry corps under Gen. Alfred Pleasanton in advance. With the advance of this cavalry was the battalion of the Third Indiana, now for the first time brigaded with the Eighth Illinois, Eighth New York, Sixth and Eighth Pennsylvania regiments of cavalry, and destined to be associated with the first two named regiments during the re- mainder of its career in the army. Lee's army had crossed the Potomac and was in Maryland. The advance cavalry of Mc- Clellan's army was engaged in daily skirmishes with the cavalry of the enemy on Maryland soil. They fought a sharp engagement at Poolesville, where several men of the Eighth Illinois and Third Indiana were killed. Stonewall Jackson occupied Fredrick for a day and then moved on Harpers Ferry. The Eighth Illinois and Jackson's rear guard had a bloody encounter in the streets of Fredrick on the 12th of September, as well as at Sugar Loaf
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Mountain. We camped in that beautiful little city of the moun- tains on the night of the 12th, and on the morning of the 13th, at sunrise, the Third Indiana in advance, moved out on the Na- tional road crossing Catoctin Mountain. A mile from our camp of the night before the enemy was in these mountains waiting for us. They greeted us with a battery posted in a mountain pass.
The Third Indiana counted off by fours and the dismounted men crawled up the mountainside through bushes and over stone fences, and soon made it too hot for that battery to operate. In this fight Oliver H. Trestor, of Company D, was killed as he leaped a stone wall right into a bunch of confederates in hiding behind it. The confederate battery with its supporting cavalry limbered to the rear and broke in a wild flight down the National road across the Middletown Valley pursued by the Third Indiana and Eighth Illinois into the village of Middletown, where we re- ceived the fire of a battery from Turners Pass, which turned out to be the headquarters of General Lee, and where he had halted to fight the battle of South Mountain.
Of these affairs Brig .- Gen. Alfred Pleasanton, commanding Cavalry Division, reporting operations from September 4 to 19, at page 208, Part 2, Vol. XIX, says :
"On the 7th instant two squadrons of the Eighth Illinois and two of the Third Indiana, under Major Chapman, of the Third In- diana, made a dash on Poolesville and captured two cavalry videttes, all of the enemy in the town at the time. The next day, the 8th instant, Colonel Farnsworth moved his command-the Eighth Illinois, Third Indiana, section of horse artillery of Com- pany M, Second Artillery, under First Lieutenant Chapin-to occupy Poolesville, and picket the roads to Conrads Ferry, Ed- wards Ferry, Barnesville and the Monocacy. As his force neared Poolesville, the enemy was observed retreating on the road leading to Barnesville, and some squadrons of the Third Indiana pushed after them. They had not proceeded far before the enemy opened
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ROBERT KLEIN.
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a fire from some guns strongly posted on the right of the town. The section of artillery under Lieutenant Chapin soon silenced these guns, which made off in the direction of Barnesville.
"The squadrons of the Third Indiana, under Major Chapman, were now ordered to charge the battery, which was handsomely done, the enemy's cavalry and artillery being driven over three miles. The Eighth Illinois coming up, under Major Medill, the chase was continued until after dark.
"In this affair the Third Indiana lost one man killed and eleven wounded, the Eighth Illinois one wounded. The rebel loss amount- ed to eight killed, sixteen wounded and six prisoners-all cavalry. On the morning of the 13th instant, with the remainder of my command, I started at daylight on the Hagerstown turnpike and had proceeded some three or four miles when the enemy opened upon the advance with artillery from the ridge to the left, where the road passes over the Catoctin range of the Blue Ridge. Their batteries were supported by dismounted cavalry. A couple of sec- tions of Robertson's and Haines' batteries immediately opened on our side, and some squadrons of the Eighth Illinois and Third Indiana were dismounted and sent up the mountain to the right as skirmishers. After a severe cannonading and several warm vol- leys with carbines, the enemy hastily retreated, having previously barricaded the road in several places. A rapid pursuit was made and a number of prisoners taken, when the enemy made a second stand on the west side of Middletown. Gibson's battery then came up and soon, in beautiful style, induced another backward move- ment."
As the cavalry dashed into Middletown two companies of the Eighth Illinois and two companies of the Third Indiana, E and F, were detached and directed to pursue a rebel wagon train, which the citizens of the town told us had gone southward down the valley. This detachment after a hot pursuit came in sight of the wagon train as it was slowly winding its way up a mountain road,
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but in its rear was a battery of brass guns and enough rebel cavalry to have swallowed the pursuing force.
The detachment was satisfied with observation and decided that it did not want that wagon train anyhow, and started to return to the command which it had left at Middletown by a short cut down a winding stony ravine, hemmed in on either side by a very crooked worm fence, so that this particular route answered for the channel of a stream and a country road at the same time. Quebeck school- house stood at the head of this ravine, and just as Company F of the Third Indiana, the rear company of the detachment, had entered the ravine Cobb's Legion of rebel cavalry, commanded by Col. P. M. B. Young, dashed down the mountainside past the schoolhouse, charging us with sabers and pistols, and for a few minutes a desperate little cavalry battle ensued.
The column halted and fired an oblique volley into the charging rebels and then the clash came and Yankees and rebels, horsed and unhorsed, mingled, indiscriminately shooting at each other and using their sabers in the same reckless manner, until the men at the head of the column tore down the fence on the side of the ravine next to the attacking force and went at them in such splendid style that it was soon too hot for the rebels and they gave way, dashing back over the hill from whence they came, leaving us in possession of the field and their dead and wounded.
In this little cavalry battle Corp. James H. Williamson, of Company F, Third Indiana, was killed by having his head crushed with a saber in the hands of a rebel; Sergt. Joseph Lewis, Com- pany E, same regiment, was shot through the heart and lay across a rebel sergeant also shot through the heart. John Grubbs, William Hinds, Corporal Sheiverbein and John Childs, of the former company, were badly hacked about their heads with rebel sabers, and Samuel Cross, of the latter company, was shot through the lungs, but recovered. Four men of Company F, Third Indiana, were captured but returned next day paroled. The loss
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to the companies of the Eighth Illinois was about the same as those of the Third Indiana, but we have no accurate information on that point.
A remarkable thing connected with this vigorous cavalry fight is that General Pleasanton, commanding all the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac in this Maryland campaign, in his report made in camp near Sharpsburg and dated September 19, 1862, and which was intended to cover the operations of the cavalry from September 4 to September 19, inclusive, does not mention this engagement at all. He does mention many things which many of us remember as of far less importance, but regarding this engagement he is silent. His report is found beginning at page 208 of Series I, Vol. XIX, Part 1, Reports (War of the Rebellion Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies). And what is equally singular, at page 824 of the same volume we find a substantially accurate report of our operations on September 13, 1862, signed by Wade Hampton, brigadier-general, and Major Fitzhue, assistant adjutant-general, both distinguished rebel officers. General Hampton says :
"At daylight on the morning of September 13 the enemy made his appearance and attempted to force his way across the moun- tain. His advance guard being driven back, he planted a battery on the pike and opened fire on Lieutenant-Colonel Martin. Capt. . J. F. Hart with a section of rifled guns had been sent to Lieu- tenant-Colonel Martin, and he returned the fire with good effect, forcing the enemy to change his position more than once. In the meantime skirmishers on both sides had become actively engaged and the fight was kept up until 2 p. m., when the enemy, gaining a position which commanded Hart's guns as well as the road, I ordered the guns withdrawn and placed in position near Middle- town. The brigade then took position in the rear of them, wait- ing the approach of the enemy, who appeared in force crossing the mountain. A brisk artillery fire took place on both sides, and the
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sharpshooters of the two forces also became engaged. Having held the enemy in check sufficiently long to accomplish the object de- sired by General Stewart, I was directed by him to withdraw my command in the direction of Burkittsville, sending my guns and Lieutenant-Colonel Martin's command on to Boonsborough.
"The First North Carolina Regiment, under command of Col. Baker, was the rear guard of the brigade during the fight at Mid- dletown, and both officers and men conducted themselves to my perfect satisfaction. They were exposed to a severe fire, artillery and musketry, which they bore without flinching, nor was there the slightest confusion in the ranks. They lost eight wounded and three missing. Captain Siler, a gallant officer, was among the wounded, having his leg broken. He was brought off, but, as his wound became painful, he was left at Boonsborough.
"Before leaving this part of my report, I beg to commend the conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Martin and his command while he held the gap of the mountain. The men of Lieutenant-Colonel Martin fought with their accustomed gallantry, and they were ably supported by a portion of the North Carolina Regiment, who had been detailed as sharpshooters. Lieutenant-Colonel Martin on this occasion, as on all others, conducted himself as a gallant and able officer.
"After withdrawing the brigade from Middletown, I proceeded towards Burkittsville, where I expected to form a junction with Colonel Munford. On the road to this place I discovered, on a road parallel to the one on which we were, a regiment of Yankee cavalry. Taking the Cobb Legion with me, I directed Lieut .- Col. Young to charge this regiment. The order was carried out in gallant style, the legion crossing sabers with the Yankees and chasing them some distance. Five prisoners were taken, while a published account of the Yankees now before me admits the loss of thirty killed and wounded. The prisoners taken belonged to the Third Indiana and Eighth Illinois.
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"Lieutenant-Colonel Young, who led the charge, received a painful wound in the leg, and Capt. G. J. Wright, whose company was in the advance, was wounded in the arm. Our loss was four killed and nine wounded. Among the former I regret to have to mention Lieutenant Marshall and Sergeant Barksdale. I take pleasure in calling attention to the behavior of this command. Colonel Young led with great gallantry, and, after his fall, Major Delony. After driving this cavalry, I moved on to Burkittsville, where we remained during the night of September 13."
Thus is preserved from oblivion an account of a fight of which the men engaged were ever proud, and about the only inaccuracy on the part of General Hampton is that the cavalry which he drove remained on the field while his command left it in short order.
During the night following this day's work of the cavalry, the Army of the Potomac came up, and on the next day, the 14th of September, 1862, was fought, on the eastern slope of South Moun- tain at and below Turners Pass, the battle known in history as the battle of South Mountain. It was an infantry and artillery en- gagement in which the cavalry merely supported batteries, the Third Indiana being assigned to Battery M, Second U. S. Artil- lery, and met with no casualties.
In this battle one thousand federals and fourteen hundred rebels were killed and twice as many wounded. It was the first general engagement in which the Third Indiana Cavalry had participated and showed us what afterwards proved to be our experience that the hard work and real fighting of the cavalry usually preceded and followed the great battles of the war, and that in the fiercest shock of battle the services of cavalry were not usually available.
From the mountainsides the rebel guns rained their iron hail upon the advancing Union lines, and were responded to by the federal guns posted upon every elevation in the valley below, and in our presence a line of infantry more than a mile long moved slowly up the mountainside over the cleared lands to the timber's
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edge, and when near it a blaze and roar burst forth from that timber's edge very much like a mountain crater.
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